On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 03:56:36 GMT, "Jon Grimm"
wrote:

Congrats, Eric

then there's the flip side...

I hired a kid from our shop's neighborhood. High school senior, attending
the welding program in vocational technical school. He achieved a
certification for arc welding. I'd love to attend this program.

He has since been graduated, and moved on to another job (whew). He came to
dad and asked if he brought a sample of this material he and his buddy
found, if dad could identify it. It seems the certified welder wans't sure
if the metal bars were steel, or not. This, after working in a machine shop
for a year...

Dad asked him if the bars were heavy.
" Oh yeah, there's lots of them."
Then dad asked him if a magnet would stick to them.
"Uh, we don't have any magnets at home."
Dad then asked if he had any refrigerator magnets.
"Oh, yeah, well, we didn't try that."

The certified welder asked me to buy 50 lengths of metal bars, like, you
know, about1/4", or as small as you can buy them.
"Jesse, I can buy steel wire as small as hair."
"Oh, not that that small, but like, whatever."
Fortunately, the "metal rods" are for sculpture, not bridges.

I'm sure that soon he'll be welding carnival rides somebody's kids will be
on.
I don't have kids.


Well, after the trainees success with the gas fitting I thought that
maybe he should try something else. I needed an adapter from a faucet
spout to a sprayer head. The hardware store had plenty of adapters but
none with the correct thread. This is a part he can make that must
work but has a little leeway. Success again! Without me hovering over
his shoulder. Then yesterday I needed an adapter for 1/2 of an oldham
coupling. One end has a .5000 hole and the other a slot that fits the
middle part of the oldham coupler. So far he has bored the part
correctly cut the slot so that the coupler part slides but there is no
side play. He still has to cut two more slots and tap a hole but I
think he's going to make this part good right from the start.
Eric